France expels Algerian diplomats recalls ambassador amid escalating row

French President Emmanuel Macron expelled 12 Algerian diplomats and consular officials on Tuesday and also recalled the French ambassador in Algiers, as tensions escalate in what has been a nearly year-long row between the two countries.  

"The Algerian authorities bear the responsibility for a sudden deterioration in our bilateral relations,” the office of the French president said in a statement on Tuesday. 

One day earlier, Algeria expelled 12 French officials who were posted there under the French interior ministry, and Macron has since confirmed that they are "on their way" home. 

The move appeared to be prompted by the arrest and indictment of three Algerian nationals, including one Algerian consular official, in Paris on terror-related charges.

Those charges involve the kidnapping of an Algerian influencer, Amir DZ, who is a vocal critic of the Algiers government. He was released less than 30 hours after he was abducted, he told a local broadcaster. 

New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch

Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters

The Algerian foreign ministry said the actions of the French prosecutor were designed to “humiliate Algeria, with no consideration for the consular status of this agent, disregarding all diplomatic customs and practices, and in flagrant violation of the relevant conventions and treaties”.

For its part, Paris said it would "defend its interests and will continue to demand that Algeria fully respect its obligations toward us".

“It is in the very interest of both France and Algeria to resume dialogue," the statement continued.

"The President of the Republic calls on the Algerian authorities to show responsibility within the framework of the demanding and constructive dialogue initiated on March 31."

Simmering tensions

That dialogue came in the form of a phone call between Macron and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, which was a bid to repair relations after a tumultuous ten months.

In July, Macron announced that France would back Morocco's decades-long plan to give the Western Sahara limited autonomy under its sovereignty. That shift would align France with allies like the United States. 

Algeria, however, backs the pro-independence Polisario Front, which acts as the Western Sahara's government in exile within Algeria's borders, the Associated Press said. 

Algiers called Paris and Rabat "colonial powers, new and old" and withdrew its ambassador to France. 

Then, in November, French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal was arrested by Algerian police on charges related to national security, and sentenced last month to five years in prison for “undermining the integrity of the territory".

Sansal had told a far-right media outlet in France that during colonisation, the French redrew their borders in North Africa and included land in Algeria that had actually belonged to Morocco. 

Migration has also caused a rift between France and Algeria.

In February, with anti-immigrant sentiment rising in France, Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said he would be reviewing the 1968 agreement that gave Algerians opportunities to settle in France. 

France24 reported at the time that a 59-year-old man who had been a legal French resident for almost four decades was deported to Algeria for speech that allegedly incited violence. 

Upon landing, the Algerian government forced the plane to turn back around. 

France has insisted that Algeria must take back its nationals who have been ordered deported, including an undocumented Algerian national who went on a stabbing spree, killing one person earlier this year.

Algeria has so far refused.                 

middleeasteye.net